Manufacturers’ survey shows infrastructure improvements could happen in area
The J. Barry Stout Expressway covers Turnpike 43 from the Interstate 70 interchange in Fallowfield Township all the way to the Allegheny County line. It is an example of what Mon Valley Alliance CEO Christopher Whitlatch calls "strong infrastructure, road, rail and river," in the valley, but he adds, "That's not to say that can't be improved."
John F. Brothers|HeraldStandard
Repairs to the Charleroi Lock and Dam on the Monongahela River and other Mon River projects remain underfunded by $500 million, despite a new infrastructure bill facing final approval in Congress.
Shuster
State and national manufacturing organizations say a survey taken after the Nov. 8 election shows widespread support for improvements to the nation’s infrastructure in the upcoming congressional session and the incoming Trump administration.
And much of that could happen in Southwestern Pennsylvania in general and have impact on a major economic development in Donora, where Retal PA LLC nears completion of what is meant to be its main United States production facility.
“There is overwhelming support for broad-based infrastructure development,” said Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association President David Taylor.
In a conference call Wednesday, Taylor and National Association of Manufacturers Vice President for Energy and Resources Policy Ross Eisenberg said 91 percent of Republicans and 81 percent of Democrats indicated support for increased investment in energy infrastructure.
Taylor said it crosses all demographics “even those who define themselves as environmentalists.” The NAM survey found 86 percent of self-identified environmentalists and 89 percent of union members support increased investment.
The survey reached out to 1,500 respondents, including 500 apiece in Pennsylvania and others in Ohio and Virginia, between Nov. 28 and Dec. 3, with a 4.38 percent margin of error in each state.
Its release is part of what PMA and NAM call “12 Days of Transition,” an effort to provide President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team and other policymakers with a roadmap to bolster manufacturing in the United States.
Part of that roadmap, according to the PMA and NAM executives, is a need for pipelines in Marcellus shale fields that include much of Western Pennsylvania.
The NAM survey also found that 61 percent of respondents expected to see good-paying jobs as an outcome of increased investment in infrastructure, with 64 percent saying investment in energy infrastructure would build a stronger economy.
“Pennsylvania is blessed with tremendous energy resources,” Eisenberg said. However, “it is a geographic mismatch between where pipelines are and where they’re needed.”
They said that need includes the Mariner East carriers of natural gas products, with Mariner East 1 already completed from Houston in Washington County through Forward Township in Allegheny County to Delmont in Westmoreland County, then on to a terminal at Marcus Hook near Philadelphia.
Taylor said there is a need for that pipeline as well as a second, $2.5 billion Mariner East 2, involving a larger pipe. Both would carry propane, butane and potentially ethane through 17 counties.
“There are dollars being spent. We have to find ways to spend them better,” Taylor said. “We have been coasting for a long time on the investments that were made by previous generations.”
Additionally, there is the $4 billion Shell ethylene cracker plant planned near Monaca in Beaver County. Eisenberg called that “an absolute engine” for economic growth.
“We are going to need new pipelines to deliver that ethylene,” the NAM vice president said. “We’ve got to have a way for our manufacturers to access that ethylene.”
Eisenberg said “a legacy plastics industry” in the Erie area “will depend on having access to ethylene,” but a multimillion-dollar facility in Donora also may benefit.
Retal PA LLC is investing $15 to 24 million in a new plant in the former Spartan-Polycom facility on Washington Street that could hire 88 employees within three years to make high-density lids and closures for the food and beverage industries.
“We are almost finished with the entire facility here and definitely production ready awaiting final testing and validation of our goods at customer to start production,” Retal CEO Admir Dobraca said in response to a Herald-Standard inquiry. “We are excited to confirm that things are going according to the original plan.”
Mon Valley Alliance CEO Christopher Whitlatch said he is “anxiously following” development of the Shell Beaver County facility, hoping it helps Retal start a trend.
“We believe that will help the valley attract plastic manufacturers who would use the product Retal is developing,” Whitlatch said. “There are so many products that can be made either with the feed stock (liquid natural gas) or the product Shell derives from that stock.”
Needs covering the entire commonwealth are included in “12 Days of Transition” as well as an ongoing “Competing to Win” campaign touted by the manufacturing organizations. For instance, Taylor cited a continued need to deepen the port of Philadelphia for larger ships that can use a recently expanded Panama Canal.
Taylor said there has been an impact on roads and bridges from state Act 89 as passed in Harrisburg in 2013, but equally there is a need for the federal government to be a stronger partner and for such entities as the Port of Pittsburgh Commission (which oversees area rivers) to be better partners in infrastructure efforts.
Citing a “B-minus” rating given to Pennsylvania by the American Association of Civil Engineers, Taylor said, “We can and must do better.”
“The Valley has strong infrastructure, road, rail and river, but that’s not to say that can’t be improved,” Whitlatch said.
Taylor and Eisenberg said public-private partnerships and the private sector are the way to go.
“We don’t want to build just for the sake of building,” Taylor said. “All the private sector is looking for is permission to build. There has been frustration from a regulatory side, whether it is state or federal.”
Meanwhile, action came in the dying days of the current congressional session on legislation dealing with river infrastructure, specifically locks and dams dating back more than 80 years on the Ohio River in the Pittsburgh area.
“We are cautiously optimistic,” Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce President Matt Smith said Wednesday about a reauthorization of the Water Resources Development Act pressed by U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Everett, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
“According to the (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), all of these lock and dam systems were built before 1936 and have structural and capacity deficiencies that increase both economic inefficiencies and consumer costs,” according to an October blog by Catie Kawchack, NAM director of infrastructure, innovation and human resources policy. “According to the Port of Pittsburgh, the Ohio River system supports 53,000 jobs mostly for the mining and manufacturing industries.”
On Thursday, WRDA was approved by the U.S. House as part of a $10 billion Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (or WIIN) Act by a 360-61 vote, before that body recessed for the rest of the year. That larger bill covered a wide range of issues such as the Flint drinking water crisis and water for California farmers, along with Ohio River locks and dams.
“The improvements in the WIIN Act are critical regional priorities, like the long-overdue upgrades for the upper Ohio River’s Emsworth, Dashields and Montgomery locks and dams, but they also provide significant national economic benefits,” Shuster said. “An efficient transportation network is what makes our economy run, and ensuring America’s water infrastructure is brought into the 21st century will grow the economy, strengthen our competitiveness and create jobs.”
WIIN then moved to the Senate, where it was approved early Saturday by 78-21 then sent to President Obama for his signature.
While locks and dams on the Monongahela River are not mentioned in the bill, Smith believed that having WRDA revised more regularly will have a positive impact on the aging facilities in Charleroi and Braddock and the elimination of the facility at Elizabeth.
Taylor and Eisenberg compared the situation going into President-elect Trump’s term with that eight years ago, when NAM supported President Obama’s promise for the stimulus package provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
However, Eisenberg said, while there was a pledge that 90 percent of that stimulus funding would go toward physical infrastructure only 10 percent actually went toward such projects.
“That is a mistake that we don’t want to repeat,” Eisenberg said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.